Babylon channels awe-inspiring production design with confident direction, a sensational score, and some powerhouse performances, especially from Calva and Robbie, to generate a surreal yet oddly sobering spectacle. If La La Land is about achieving your dreams, then Babylon is about the stark realisation that dreams don’t always last.
The word “Babylon” has appeared throughout literature, but a standard dictionary definition describes a place of great luxury and vice. That definition seems crystal clear when applied to Damien Chazelle‘s film of the same name. Here, we have a film rich with stylish craftsmanship that has personified Chazelle’s work since Whiplash. Yet his story also has a dark underbelly that is as compelling as it is soul-crushing.
Set in the late 1920s, as the silent film era was morphing into the age of talkies, Manuel Torres (Diego Calva) finds himself at a lavish party in Hollywood, where he declares his desire to be part of something bigger: the filmmaking business. Also in attendance is Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a brash New Jersey woman who has already decided she is the next big star. As the two set off to achieve their desires, they are met with the full behemoth that is the ‘business’, finding themselves challenged in a filmmaking world that is rapidly changing just as they’ve arrived.
Chazelle has always been acutely interested in the pursuit of dreams and the things people are willing to do to achieve them. Where his previous films were character dramas focusing on one or two individuals at a time, Babylon is his first ensemble feature. The ambition behind this project has created something that is, at times, overstuffed. Yet it retains a powerful thematic core that is both captivating and quintessentially Chazelle.
As Nellie and Manuel navigate the Hollywood scene through acting and production, they find that the glitz, glamour and spectacle that drew them in is a veil for a messy present and a merciless future. Chaos reigns from the moment the two arrive at the gates of Babylon and find themselves in the middle of a drug-fuelled scene of gluttonous celebration. Long takes and intense close-ups highlight both the scale and the toll of such unfiltered euphoria. Justin Hurwitz’s magnificently wild score enhances this baffling but exciting world. Yet Manuel and Nellie are moths to the flame of success, and before long, they find themselves the latest rising stars.
Linus Sandgren’s dazzling cinematography is matched only by the production design. The scale of the set pieces highlights their majesty while also revealing the ugliness behind the curtain. This feels appropriate, as Nellie and Manuel’s recently won stardom is already threatened by time and technological advances working against them. Here, the Hollywood machine continues to operate as it sheds those it no longer needs. Chazelle’s decision to make this an ensemble feature shows how far-reaching that idea is.
While Nellie and Manuel, recent additions to Babylon, struggle between what they want and who they are, even established names are not safe. Brad Pitt plays Hollywood legend Jack Conrad, a man whose fame is beginning to wither as the transition to talking pictures treats silent stars like him as relics. Babylon deftly utilises sound to convey the gravity of this idea. In a world where everyone is making noise, the growing silence speaks volumes, conveying just how unforgiving the industry can be.
Kaia Gerber plays Starlet, and Li Jun Li plays Lady Fay Zhu in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.
Chazelle’s direction articulately captures the gargantuan beast his characters try to tame. When characters receive acceptance and validation for their efforts, their boisterous nature takes on an ecstatic thrill. Yet as movies start to talk and the conglomerate elite become less libertine, growing anxiety overshadows the joy in harrowing ways. One of the film’s most notable scenes is Nellie performing in her first talking picture. Countless things go wrong, leading to numerous takes while generating a scene of such unbelievable stress and anger that one can only laugh; otherwise, one would cry.
Babylon is a story about people who want to be stars, become stars, and are ultimately reduced to stardust. It is an experience that is both kinetically charged and darkly solemn once the high of its spectacle wears off. That makes it an arresting movie with a surprising emotional punch. Chazelle is perhaps overambitious here, as the three-hour runtime does start to feel meandering once Tobey Maguire’s character is introduced about two-thirds of the way in. The scenes’ longevity on set and the undisciplined nightlife behind the scenes are a double-edged sword: they embolden the themes through the sheer rambunctiousness of the chaos on screen, but it can feel overwhelming at times. Chazelle doesn’t manage to balance style and substance as well as he has in the past. As a result, Babylon won’t work for everyone watching.
However, for this reviewer, Babylon is a powerful and fascinating film, with highs and lows that offer rich commentary on how a creative’s power is never permanent and always in service to the larger collective of the art form. It is a truth that is both scary and bittersweet. Babylon channels awe-inspiring production design with confident direction, a sensational score, and some powerhouse performances, especially in Calva and Robbie, to generate a surreal yet oddly sobering spectacle. If La La Land is about achieving your dreams, then Babylon is about the stark realisation that dreams don’t always last.
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